My face has aged over the years, 37 to be exact on this earth trying to share moments energy and time. I got lost a long time ago and was walking aimlessly through this life being something for others and neglecting myself in the process. At the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 I had a little epiphany, it was time for me to learn to wipe the tarnish of myself and shine brightly like a star. I at the time was a portly 252 lbs. ya that is right ginormous compared to where I am today. I looked in the mirror and made a decision to be come better on a daily basis, and that started with going over to Workout World in Waltham and getting a membership. So you can only do it one day at a time so I was consistently working out and running to get into shape. i started eating a lot of protein and fat to start and chew up the fat on my body and it progressively started to disappear.

I also made a decision to ride for MS in June of 2010 from Quincy to Provincetown a total of 175 miles in 2 days that’s right 2 days… 100 miles the first day 75 the second day, so I went to Wheel Works in Belmont to see what they had available for bikes in a price range that I could afford. I found a mustard and brown Trek 3700 mountain bike last years model for 349$ and I was in business. So I started training at the gym, running and riding my bike 13- 20 miles a day ya I don’t kid around when it comes to doing work.. There is no give up in this kid, sometimes I am afraid of rejection but when there is something that needs to get done I get it done.

So I dropped from 250 to 230 in about 2 months and I started to up my mileage on my bike and spike up the intensity as well so needless to say I was in amazingly good shape by the time the ride came around. I rode my 40 lb. mountain bike with 2 water bottles 2 locks wore a backpack and headed out on a two day ride to help find a cure for a debilitating disease that has stricken people close and far from me. I never got so many compliments from people on beautiful 1000$ carbon fiberroad bikes as I did on those 2 days.They said things like that I was a beast and just a little crazy to be riding my mountain bike with knobby tires 175 miles, but I used what I had and could afford while also having a bike I enjoy riding on a daily basis.

I was joined on this ride by Lucas Anderson a friend from way back in my Ritz camera working days of 1998, he was actually the reason I got the idea in the first place to challenge myself to do this ride and do it better than just well. He, Lucas had done this ride before and had a nice road bike so we didn’t ride together for that long but it was great to know someone that was doing it as well. so after the long hard 100 miles was over we got to stay at Mass Maratime Academy for the night and they had a great spread of food and BEER for us thanx to Wachusett Brewery and some other fine sponsors. it was tough to sleep since it was the end of June and it was humid in the Barracks so it took a while to fall asleep.

The next morning did come to quickly but I was charged to get some grub in me and get on the rode to my home, Cape Cod the 2nd best place in the world besides Boston to me anyway. We headed out about 530 am crossed the Bourne Bridge and we were off on the 75 mile excursion to Provincetown mostly by 6A, such beautiful scenery along that route and it just reminded me how awesome life truly is. The route was a little more difficult, for the Quincy to Bourne route was a lot of down hill and on the way to Provincetown was a lot of up hill so the 75 did feel more like another 100 but it was an amazing experience to say the least.

We arrived in Provincetown to many fans clapping and rooting us on for most of the last stretch which was awesome because their positive energy made it not seem so far or so hard. Once I got off my bike and put it on the truck to go back to Quincy I grabbed my bag and took a much earned and deserved shower in the portable showers they had for us to wash the road the sweat and the tears away with. Lucas and I met up and went to enjoy a few beers before we boarded the ferry back to the real world and the experience would just be an amazing memory for us all from then on.

2010 was an amazing year full of learning experiences and fulfilling moments of joy I mean not everyday was amazing but for the most part it rocked. 2011 has been humbling to say the least, on my third job in 4 1/2 months but in any experience you bring the best of yourself into it and see what happens. It doesn’t always work out, but if you give it your best shot that is truly all you can ask for. I have landed at what I hope is a good restaurant experience and will help me grow and change for the better on a daily basis, we shall see. My photography continues to find it’s own level and make me more happy and proud everyday, I hope for great opportunities to shine with camera and lens for months and years to come.

I had an opportunity to sit and chat with a great designer who has a Studio in Cambridge his name is Samuel Vartan if you are into the latest in woman’s fashion you should check out his work. Not only is his work great but he is a great man to talk to as well, I am hoping we can do more great things together in the not so distant future. The reason I had the opportunity to chat with him was that I photographed his spring, summer line at the Southern New England Woman’s Expo at the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island last Sunday and it was quite an experience. To read more about the expo check out my photography blog on it from last Monday.

The experiences I am getting to be a part of really are amazing and influential in my growth as a man. I forget sometimes that I am a good person and have had an impact in many lives so far and can’t wait for the next life I can touch with my loving, caring heart. I also have become more of a friend to myself which in this life is so important, we all have the opportunity to create positive change in our lives and other peoples lives should we choose to it is totally up to us. I will leave you with this, If you treat others the way you feel then that will be 2 or more people who may be angry, bitter or irritated by you putting that energy out there. But if you treat people the way that you want to be treated than for a moment in time you have healed the world. here is to a happy healthy 2011, and please don’t condemn our president for the hard work he is trying to do to right this sinking ship nobody said it was gonna be easy but the best things in life never are. It takes Time , love and tenderness of heart to create positive change and it starts inside you. God bless

We all have moments in life where we truly shine outside ourselves… When we let down our guard and truly be who we are meant to be. Our lives are best lived when we are able to see that we just need to get out of our own way and let the goodness shine through. I am working on it are you?

We as the people of this great nation and the world all have an opportunity on a daily basis to over come that which we could not control and start taking control of what we can. Ourselves, it is our responsibility to shine like the stars the sun and the moon inside. It only takes moving forward one better decision at a time to realize our true potential in this short life…

No person knows the answer for your life but you, it is time to rise and shine and give the glory to GOD for he trusts in you. He believes you can overcome the past and make a solid today!

Boats and the ocean are beautiful and enjoyable to us all… Even if you have never dipped a toe in the ocean you are still drawn to it and the secrets it keeps.

I think we take for granted the amazing wonders that the sea provides us with and what lies beneath its waters too…

~Alan

The Immense Ocean
Imagine that you are an ant on Mount Everest. That’s about the size relationship of one human being to the ocean.
Everything about the ocean is immense — it has the tallest mountains in the world and the deepest valleys. It covers 72 percent of the Earth’s surface. That’s 139 million square miles or 139 with 19 zeros after it. And it’s not just wide. It’s deep — 12,460 feet deep on average. That’s 10 Empire State buildings stacked on top of each other!
Oceans Alive
Most scientists think life began in the ocean over 3 billion years ago. Today, the ocean contains an amazing array of life at every depth. Over 1 million known species of plants and animals live there, and scientists say there may be as many as 9 million species we haven’t discovered yet.
Marine animals come in all kinds of weird shapes, sizes, and colors; and they live in all kinds of different environments within the ocean. Theblue whale, the largest animal in the world, lives in the open ocean, along with millions of tiny drifting organisms calledplankton. In the tropical seas, silverygreat barracudaspursue colorful coral reef fish. Then there’s the deep sea — where it’s as dark as night and icy cold. At depths as great as 7,000 feet below the surface,tubewormslive in the most extreme environment in the world — hot sea vents. There, the water temperature changes from scalding hot to icy cold in the space of a few feet. No matter where you go in the ocean, you will always find life.

Gimme Energy
Life in the ocean depends on energy. No animal can move or grow without energy. Most ocean animals get their energy by eating plants or other animals. The connection between organisms based on the transfer of energy is called a food chain or a food web. Most food webs start with the conversion of sunlight into food through a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is an important process that occurs at the surface of the ocean. But deep within the ocean, at hydrothermal vents, food chains are based on the conversion of chemical energy into food. This process is called chemosynthesis.
You’ve heard of “one world?” Well, technically, all the world’s oceans and seas are part of one continuous mass of seawater. But because the ocean is so big, humans have divided it up and named the different parts. There are five oceans and several dozen seas.* Seas are usually smaller than oceans and are partially enclosed by land. But otherwise, they’re exactly the same thing.
What’s the Difference Between an Ocean and a Sea?

I am from Cape Cod and still enjoy it but not as much as I truly would like, living in Watertown…

I grew up off of Queen anne rd. on a little dead-end street called Hillcrest Dr. #35 to be exact it was my Nana’s house and we lived there till I was 11 greatest years of my life just being able to enjoy being a kid. The beaches in the summer, the ball fields in the spring, the snow in the winter and the smell of apple pies in the fall bring me back to yesteryear and the joy of it all…

The Town of Harwich is a quiet resort and agricultural community located on the south side of the Cape peninsula, with an extensive shoreline on Nantucket Sound. The year-round population is approximately 12,677 with a seasonal increase to 37,000. Harwich encompasses 20.93 square miles of land area with 10.9 miles of tidal shoreline. It is located in the 10th Congressional District, the Plymouth, Cape and Islands State Senatorial District. With miles of rivers and marshes and a coastline of sandy beaches dotted with the town’s four (4) picturesque harbors, Harwich has the unique ability to provide every form of aquatic activity available: quiet canoeing through the great marshes of the Herring River, water skiing on Long Pond, deep sea fishing out of the harbors, fly fishing in several of the smaller ponds, or swimming and sunbathing on the sandy Nantucket Sound and Pleasant Bay beaches.

Harwich has many different types of scenic landscapes, which include; almost eleven (11) miles of tidal shoreline along Nantucket Sound and Pleasant Bay; four (4) harbors, where Round Cove is the only naturally occurring one and Wychmere, Allens, and Saquatucket were once pond and/or marsh areas, dredged out to the Sound to provide protection for sea vessels; many bogs which are scattered throughout Harwich providing scenic enjoyment and agricultural production; twenty-two (22) freshwater ponds and two (2) reservoirs; two (2) scenic river corridors: Herring River and Muddy Creek; and over 320 acres of forests, water, and wetland in the Bells Neck Road/Salt Marsh/Reservoir area.

HISTORY
Harwich was settled around 1665, and incorporated in 1694. Its early economy included agriculture and maritime industries and its history has included boom and bust cycles from the earliest days of the community.

The upper Cape towns of Sandwich, Barnstable and Yarmouth were incorporated by 1639. The ‘Pamet Lands’, including the outer Cape towns of Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown were purchased in 1644 and incorporated as Nauset in 1646. The territory in between these towns included Indian land and part of the land known as ‘Purchases or Old Comers Reserve’. John Wing appears to have been the first settler in this new territory in 1658 in what is now Brewster. In 1667, Indian Chief Sachemus gave John Mecoy a thirty-six (36) acre parcel of land in what is now Harwich Center. Gershom Hall, the first white man to reside in Harwich, settled on this land in 1668. By 1694, there were enough settlers in the territory to support a minister, this being a requirement for application for incorporation by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This large tract of land, the largest in Barnstable County, remained intact until 1772 when the southeastern part was set off to Eastham.

In 1775, when Separatists and Baptists outnumbered Orthodox Congregationalists, Harwich burghers felt independent enough to refuse to support a minister with public tax monies and they continued refusing to do so for 18 years. The town showed religious diversity from the first, including residents who are Baptists, Methodists, Reformed Methodists (anti-episcopal), Wesleyans and Catholics, among others. In 1803, after a bitter struggle, the north parish and south parish separated into the Towns of Brewster and Harwich.

When the whaling industry collapsed with the discovery of oil, the community’s emphasis shifted to cod fishing. By 1802, 15 to 20 ships were shore fishing and another four ships were cod fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador, and by 1851, there were 48 ships employing 577 men and bringing in thousands of tons of cod and mackerel. The eventual decline of the fishing industry in Harwich by the latter part of the 19th century was caused by increases in the size of ships which eventually outstripped the shallow port’s ability to house them. Residents turned to the development of cranberry bogs and resorts for summer visitors, working side-by-side with Portuguese immigrants. The first resort hotel opened in 1880 and both the cranberry and the tourist industries remain substantial parts of Harwich’s economy in the present.

For more information about the history of Harwich, please visit the Harwich Historical Society at Brooks Academy Museum.